The X-Men Episode 7 - The Sinister Genepool
by SuperMudz
Summary: The X-Men search out and confront Sinister in his lair, who they suspect has some connection to Stryker.
1. Chapter 1

**The X-Men**

EPISODE SEVEN

THE SINISTER GENEPOOL

_by SuperMudz_

* * *

**CHAPTER ONE**

**THE HUNT FOR WOLVERINE**

* * *

"So this is how I go out, huh? Boiled alive by every cell. Almost enough to make a guy wish he wasn't so hard to kill…" he grunted and looked down, feeling the heat begin in his claws.

Some time later, Wolverine escaped.

Wolverine encountered creatures that were the spitting image of dragons out of some fairy-tale. As he made his way through the gorge, they hunted him, spitting flames from their mouths.

Some kind of mutation, or just animals? He didn't know yet – but the scent in his nose was wrong either way. If they were just animals, where did they come from?

He made his way over the rocks, the costume shredded from his back. Even's Beast's skills were no match for a situation like this. He took cover inside a small cave and tried to get out of range of the worst of it. The things didn't even have to get close, they could just continue to chase him like this.

Unless he could take them by surprise, get within range. But there were several of them – he didn't think he'd be able to get them all.

_Have to find the source of these things – then maybe come back with a whole X-Team, _he thought grudgingly.

He had escaped the chains at some temporary cost to his skin, and very painfully – but he had gotten out, despite the creature's greedy cunning.

He had stock-piled food and was waiting in the wilds from the beast. A mocking laughter followed him but he never knew the source. He hadn't needed to eat yet.

He built a fire and within days the X-Jet had spotted it.

Cyclops landed with the X-Men. "The tracker says he should be in this valley somewhere."

They were searching valley by valley, mile by mile, with the X-Jet. They had disembarked and re-embarked several times already, trying to get a fix on Logan's signal. But the rock here deflected all kinds of transmissions – which is why they couldn't stray too far away from their transport.

Xavier wasn't with them, but with all the wild-life in the area, even Jean's psychic powers were having trouble locating anything that wasn't some kind of predator or animal following their scent. She scared them off a few times with a psychic burst.

The dragons had apparently gotten tired of the fruitless chase, although they had torn and scorched the very durable material off Logan's charred and blistered back. They were steady and methodical, but it seemed they were also hungry. One of them trapped him in the cave while he wasn't paying enough attention.

Within range of his claws, but they had no way of knowing exactly what made him so hard to kill. Even with all the damage and pain they had dealt him, he still didn't really want to slaughter them. But he had little recourse.

Eventually, after a short battle, the dragon simply flew away, to mend its cuts into scars. _Perhaps the memory will be enough to make it keep its distance. _Or he had just turned a dangerous animal into a vengeful one – but in the heat of battle, that's the decision he had made. Accustomed to his own indestructibility, outside of a berserker rage, he was highly aware that most thing couldn't shrug off hurts like he could. Maybe it slipped past a lot of folks, but that was his own personal trade-off in dilemmas.

After a few days (before the X-Men came to find him), he had deepened his search, looking for the source of that mocking laughter, that often seemed to precede activity from the local wild-life. And eventually, he did come across something, as he reached an unexpected dip – a valley within this maze and hive of valleys.

Wolverine spotted the strange structure, some kind of bizarre compound, in the valley. The scent had brought him this far.

Wolverine spotted something in the valley. It looked like something from another world. He wondered.

(*)

The X-Men recovered him, rather surprised to see a dragon flying away in the process – a burst from Cyclops scattered the other predators that had apparently taken up station around Wolverine's impromptu camp. But after their space mission, in one week, they would return.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

MR. SINISTER

* * *

"It had all the signs of his work, I'd suspect he'd sequestered himself somewhere in that valley. With the science at his command, presumably he's learned how to hide himself from our senses. He is equally as dangerous as Magneto, if in a different way."

"What do you think, Beast? How smart is this guy?" Scott was brooding, a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Mr. Sinister may very well be the smartest man on the planet – but there is the question of applicability." Hank returned.

Xavier had called up an image of the man, his fanged teeth smiling at them from the monitor. They had encountered the villain before, and it had not been pleasant for any of them. They were unsurprised if the "man", if such he still was, had taken a dislike to Wolverine – the previous time, Logan had been the only one immune to his nefarious attacks.

Cyclops didn't like piecing it together – it seemed that somehow Stryker had gotten his hands on and perfected some of those developments – or Sinister was in fact working directly with the man, a shocking development if true.

"After all that genetic modification he's done to himself. You can't do that without paying some sort of price."

"Well he is one man. Unfortunately, the price he seems to have paid is his morality, which is a cost far too high." Charles said, who had been in here doing some brooding of his own for the past few hours.

He had gathered most of the X-Men – Cyclops had easily anticipated they would require all their strength, and with so many of them close at hand, now was the time to take advantage of it – even if they were minus Rogue and Gambit (pursuing a mission of their own). He wondered about those two, but all he could do was hope it worked out for the best.

"I wager Beast could give him a run for being a know-it-all." Logan

"I wouldn't speak too soon," Beast corrected him. "There's a very large difference between what Mr. Sinister does, and what I know. I'm merely a student in comparison, really. Even Xavier doesn't understand everything Sinister has accomplished, and he is perhaps one of a very few peers, if a creature like that has any."

"After all, Logan, he has had nearly a hundred years to perfect his research. Even I'm relatively a youngster by his standards, as he's apparently as immortal as you are. In fact, he was once one of my teachers, as I've told you all before."

_Someone that taught Xavier? Scary thought._ They had long assumed that Xavier was pretty much the smartest guy on the planet, but it turned out he had predecessors of his own. Weird to think for an old guy. She hoped he couldn't read his mind on that. Commenting on the age of everyone around you could be a little embarrassing to note.

"If you prepare for the Devil, you must be prepared for the unknown." Charles told Beast.

"And why is that?" Hank couldn't resist taking the bait.

"Because if you defeat the Devil, the one that takes its place will no longer be the one that you know."

A silence fell while they pondered that statement.

_Well it's catchy, at least, _Wolverine thought privately from his own station.

On the way, Charles continued to speak of his previous relationship with the… whatever it was that "Mr. Sinister" was. Chilling, aside.

"He doesn't consider himself a mutant. He thinks of himself as a higher evolutionary – although I have my suspicions. I could never prove it of course, given how little contact we've had, but I would certainly hazard that his peculiarities that manifested are not purely the result of his own engineering, although it's… possible… that he's capable of them…"

"I've found it's very difficult to graft new change on an unwilling structure, and people without the X gene tend to be biologically very resistant. It nearly resulted in several disasters as you well know – Eric's design to mutate humanity with his machine nearly wiped them all out."

They still remembered the blast zone like it was fresh. It was like the result of a nuclear blast, that only Xavier's brilliant mind had been able to contain, having prepared his own counter-devices.

Cyclops as well. His optic vision had been a vital component to containing the blast, although they still didn't know how it was accomplished, or how he had survived it.

Beast looked over at Jean. And she was only recently returned to them as well. They had adapted to it as willingly as they could, but it was an undermarked tragedy none of them really knew how to deal with. They simply trusted that Jean and Scott could work it out with each other, and they'd simply be there for them. A family to fall back on if they were in distress.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

HIS DARK CREATIONS

* * *

They returned to the valley. They found him. Mr. Sinister. At least, they found his work.

Beast led the way, exploring through the caverns that had been transformed into something much more remarkable. Like a gaia out of a sci-fi novel, Jean commented.

"They're some kind of living plant organism…" he said, staring at the leafy green, strange pods growing in the chamber.

"He's growing some kind of entirely new organism, I've never seen anything like it," Beast commented. "He certainly knows how to play with the strands of life." It was a bleak statement, but his mind was obviously working at it.

_"__He is less interested in mutant power and more interested in genetic superiority. It's a subtle distinction but important." _Beast remembered the Professor's words as they had come flying in to this strange and forgotten valley. Only Wolverine had gotten a good look at it before hand, and according to him, he was not unexpected.

Xavier was certainly curious, examining the life-pods, so much like frosted green glass. "Like the creature we saw in Stryker's lab, he's breeding himself a mutant attack force. But unlike the Brotherhood, these will be feral predatory beasts, armed with devastating powers under his command." With his mental powers, not much was hidden from him, save for Sinister himself, it appeared.

"Humans long ago out-stripped the animal kingdom for military force – but it seems Sinister might intend to redress the balance to his advantage." He commented.

Beast looked around as they progressed further into the strange arboreal, watched by countless unknown creatures.

"I've counted several kinds of animals I haven't been able to classify. Perhaps I'll go talk to them a little." With that, he scampered off into the brush before anyone could stop him. Wolverine shrugged. "His funeral," he commented sympathetically, eying another cigar before putting it back in his pocket.

Xavier looked around, taking in the colossal and strange affair – animals and plants which had never existed on Earth before.

"You have to anticipate the Devil you don't know. And that can give you a very strange feeling." Was his final words.

(*)

MR. SINISTER

(*)

"And here I am. Metaphorically at least." The voice came.

They were not alone. A figure appeared from the darkness, and none of them had detected him coming.

It was a short battle – the X-Men were taken entirely by surprise as the terrain around them erupted into an enemy. Vines and strange grass lashed them together and caught them in a strangling grip, and dozens of large, unfriendly looking animals suddenly around them – their eyes glowing with an odd yellow light, inhuman and inanimal at the same time.

After "Sinister" had defeated them, he regarded his foes, entangled in the giant vines that seemed to obey his commands. He did not seemed surprised to see them.

He was oddly formidable seeming, even more so in person than when they had studied him on the screen.

"It's strange how our minds seem invented to trick us," he said, examining his fingers and the back of his hand. Then he closed it into a fist.

"But I'm re-invented. I am new. I am the thing I desired to be, and it is…" his breath hissed and it was like wind passing through reeds… "Perfect."

"What's up with this guy anyway, Cyclops?"

"We get out of this, I'll tell you," he said back, grunting against his bonds. Restrained as he was, he couldn't reach his visor – he'd give Sinister a quick taste of optic blast.

Suddenly Sinister doubled over as if in pain, an expression of alarm and shock crossing his face.

"Charles," Sinister paused – and Xavier revealed himself from the shadows, hidden somehow from Sinister's detection. It was at times like these that Jean remembered what a powerful telepath he was. He had had years to perfect his mental powers, and he had taught her much about wielding her own. Unfortunately there was very little he could do to help her with the Phoenix beyond what he had – it's power was too great for anyone.

"I didn't expect to see you here. Usually you're too busy with your… children… I suppose. Continuing the fine tradition."

"I suppose it couldn't have been that easy," Xavier said blandly.

"No, it isn't," Sinister smiled, and tapped his temple.

"What's going on, Professor?" Cyclops asked. Sometimes, even in battle, there was no other way to ask. Jean was struggling just to keep the vines from crawling into her mouth and strangling her completely. She was fighting the most effectively and they seemed to repond in time. If only he could reach his visor…

"His thoughts… are so alien now… chilling…" Xavier said. "He certainly has formidable strength, although there's nothing natural about it."

"The darkness in between, that's where knowledge of the infinite is. All the spaces in between the genes, between our thoughts, the history of man – that mystery that men fear – those are the thoughts of God."

"It's the space of God. You can't understand it – but if you're smart, you can learn how to use it."

"It seems to me that the question of design, irreducible complexity, whether something is so small and finite as to be unbreakable proof of the impossibility of alternative origins, is much like the age old question of can God make a stone so heavy He cannot lift it?"

"And what conclusion did you come to?"

"I think that in the possibility of infinity, there is both infinite value for belief, and infinite value for chance. Perhaps genes carry an expression greater than the language of Angles can compass."

Beast made a somewhat surprised expression. "A somewhat unexpected argument," Logan heard him say in a low voice. Sinister seemed to be intriguing him. Charles' expression, however, was immovable.

"That's a heartless philosophy."

"No heart? Maybe I'll have two…" he grinned, and with his fangs it was a terrible thing. "But maybe not. No organs, you know. I have no need of them with my high evolutionary body."

"Worm colonies, wonderful things – fueled much of my research."

They heard a sound from Wolverine as he suddenly slashed himself free of his vines! Apparently he got the leverage he was looking for, and now was leaping for Sinister's throat!

The cruel creature smiled even as he saw the attack in-coming, Wolverine moving swifter than any animal could stop him.

Mr. Sinister hit Logan with a strange mass of gelatinous living substance that left him pinned to the wall.

The glob of strange worm-like mucous threaded into Wolverine's mouth, and in an instant, it was gone!

"We don't have time for arguments anymore," they heard Cyclops say. And then the cavern erupted in ruby light as his visor activated!

Cyclops hit Sinister with a blast of his optic vision, and the creature suddenly fell down into the dark hole and disappeared – leaving them with a wounded Wolverine.

"Thanks, Jean," he said as he freed himself. She was still spluttering leaves.

"Thank goodness I managed to stop them before they worked their way into my lungs."

"Jean activated my visor for me – it was the only way."

Charles nodded. "Quick thinking."

(*)

"But I can't see it…!" Kitty objected – when they had gathered to discuss removing the parasite inside Wolverine.

"As long as it's not adamantium, I'll be fine…" Wolverine said grimly, but his expression showed that was clearly not ideal.

"I thought you had a metabolism that was practically invincible to this kind of organic invasion." Beast asked. "I've studied it myself – up until a few weeks ago I would have thought nothing could overcome it."

"My healing factor, yeah – normally. But this stuff seems to like it."

"Everyone's been so prepared for us lately, I don't like it," Jean added herself. "And I can't find any trace of Mr. Sinister. Neither can the Professor."

Cyclops nodded at that, and adjusted his visor.

"I'm going to go track down Mr. Sinister. You guys look after Wolverine – we might need him."

"Scott, be careful."

He just saluted quietly and then disappeared.

_What if I pull his stomach out by accident? _She fretted. Wolverine's life depended entirely on her, and she was still just a kid, really. She talked brave, but this was serious. She didn't mind everything else, but she didn't have a good track record when it came to damages and being careful, as she would be quick to tell others if Wolverine wasn't right there.

"Wait, I think I can feel it… it's different from the rest…" it seemed to _react _somehow, she could feel it squirming around. But her phase power was a tactile thing, she realized she could actually separate it from the rest – it's substance was slightly different from the "normal" matter around it that it was invading.

Stickily, with difficulty, she extracted it as one massive flailing organism. She nearly shrieked and dropped it.

It died, blackened and deteriorating – Kitty disintegrated it using her ability, phasing its cells into each other. She had never done it before, but there was no reason she couldn't do it now, as it occurred to her.

Her ability came with a certain tactile sense, which never steered her wrong, so she could act on the instinct almost as quickly as it occurred to her. She didn't want to have to tangle with a living organism that nearly strangled Wolverine from the inside, even if her intangibility could have protected her.

(*)

FORGE

(*)

Time. Time was an illusion, but one that moved because of the shifts in reality as it made sense of itself – and humanity was swept along with it like sticks in a streams, or pebbles that turned over in the rush. He didn't know what he was. Maybe he was like one of those fish Beast talked about, leaping his way back up-stream until he reached home, avoiding the… bears? Bears. He supposed that's what Apocalypse was.

One swipe, and his existence could end. But until then, maybe there was a glimmer of light, a chance. It's all he worked for. He knew what a weapon time could be – and given enough of it, maybe he could find something…

Forge sat along in the chamber, working from the device the Professor had devised. A psychic tracker meant to pick up on the psychic emanations apparently manifested from the being he knew as Apocalypse. He had felt constantly cold since being informed, and with the Professor's help managed to determine there was indeed something strange going on, that had apparently circumvented all his devices….

They had been built to prevent temporal incursion and even perhaps an attack, but apparently this did not prevent the dread of Apocalypse's presence manifesting psychically.

He didn't know what else to do – but with the Professor's help, perhaps he could begin on something. The X-Men had their own missions – but if he was fortunate, they would be there when the time came, although he wasn't certain if even they could stand against all his might.

It wasn't for his own sake, or he would have returned to his own time long ago – Apocalypse would destroy or enslave everything from the beginning of time to its end if he wasn't stopped. This was the only nexus which had thus far escaped his grasp.

His friends in the future would be enslaved or worse, unless he could devise a solution in this time – the greatest vantage point he could think of.

It was hooked into his transporter – and it was ready.

He activated the device and disappeared.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

THE END GAME OF MR. SINISTER

* * *

More of that grass seemed to crop up, but they had learned how to avoid them, and Jean had gotten quite competent in "convincing" them not to bother the X-Men.

Of all Sinister's powers, it did not seem that he had quite gotten to the point of sharing a psychic ability – and the strange rapport he had escaped them. It seemed to be a psychic attunement and ability of a _sort, _but it was a subtle thing – whispering genetic expression, and humming empathy that seemed to dive out of ordinary sensory range.

He almost seemed to be developing an ant colony of a sort – but the most extraordinary and obvious feature was the plants, and the animal predators that lurked among the branches and guarded the perimeters.

Wolverine had found a helmet outside. Which had been clearly identified as one of Stryker's contingent, which left a bit of a mystery for them. They found Sinister again – and as a team they came up on him.

Beast made a sound. "Like the professor said - like Adam and Eve, even a perfect person eventually has to change, and just once is enough."

Perhaps it was more accurate to say the Professor found him first. Jean was the first to sense it, but the face of the Professor loomed up ahead with Sinister – apparently engaged in some kind of tempered conversation.

"You can't eliminate the human condition, you can only learn to control it. As soon as you eradicate one element, you've only made it invisible – it'll return where you can't see it."

"I've learn much about the properties of nature and growth here. I've been studying the secrets of Eden."

"If I recall correctly, they were expelled from the Garden of Eden for seeking the forbidden."

"Yes – with the flaming sword… but what happens when one returns? When the turning blade holds no more bite for the enlightened? If you learn the secret of angels do you not become one yourself? Who then is to say what is forbidden?"

"I have created my own Eden. I make my own rules. And I am… as you see… the ultimate product of my labours."

"I see nothing of the divine about this. You've merely twisted your knowledge to serve spite, when you could have used it to heal."

"I will create my perfect Eden. A paradise I have designed from the strands of all living things. And at its heart, I shall be the master. As the saying goes - I shall be like God."

Sinister seemed wounded. He looked up at the X-Men, the watery substance around his feet, a wary look in his eyes.

They confronted Mr. Sinister in the massive cave. He seemed to have a predilection for them. Wolverine had found a scent, mostly by tracking Cyclops who had been blasting his way through the cavern system. They came across the bodies and signs of defeated foes, some monstrous insects that had been stunned or retreated.

"Did you help Stryker?" Charles asked.

"Stryker? I do not work for that fool."

"Well he seems to be using your work, nonetheless." Xavier told him.

"Oh really?" Sinister seemed contemptuous. "If the man could understand a tenth of my work, you would have greater concerns than I. My knowledge in the hands of fools would doom human and mutant alike."

He paused, and then smiled - grotesque apparition of humour. "Perhaps not I – but I am not without my sympathies."

"Come to do battle again, X-Men?" he appraised them.

"Everyone has questions about the infinite, don't they, Charles?" his eyes glittered.

"That is where we are different, Sinister," Xavier said, his presence looming. "I've never been afraid of a mystery. Quite enjoy it in fact. And I think I've discovered yours."

"Oh?" his face was not pleased at the challenge.

There was suddenly a shocking sound.

Colossus crashed through the wall. He immediately didn't stop, but directly aimed for Sinister and hit him in a massive tackle. As powerful and heavy as Mr. Sinister had proved himself to be, Colossus' heavy momentum knocked him off his perch, and drove him right into the wall. And through it.

Kitty could see the genetically engineered man's face, it had caught him completely off-guard.

Colossus had hit him like a Russian tank, and showed no signs of slowing. With heavy swings that could have pulverized a truck, he mashed in Mr. Sinister's leering face. She could hear the _krunk _of super-toughened cartilage-like substance being ploughed in.

Then Wolverine leapt him, and made him shie back with his adamantium claws.

Mr. Sinister sniffed, a strange expression crossing his pale face. "Hm, strange, I smell my formula in you…"

Mr. Sinister's fingers had left rents in Colossus' ordinarily impenetrable steel-like skin. When he returned to his normal state, he was going to have to spend some time in the infirmary recovering. Kitty found herself growing quite solicitous of the giant.

Cyclops launched one final laser attack, and left Sinister slammed against the wall, and he fell, stunned and unconscious. Even a creature like Mr. Sinister was now - was vulnerable to such things, it seemed.

It was a long battle when they found him, but at last it was done. Mr. Sinister was nowhere to be seen, but his garden of Eden had been stopped before it begun. But not for the last time, they suspected.

They found his computers – his thugs were no difficulty to tie up – and they collected all the information they could. He hadn't entirely made the transition to his biological substitutes, so they weren't entirely flummoxed.

When he came to, he was well imprisoned, and Charles had the opportunity to interrogate him at length. He got little chance however. Shortly after the conversation ended – the floor burst up and swallowed him and he made yet another escape.

BEAST

Beast brought back a strange new organism from the encounter with Sinister, to study. A new kind of micro-organism that he said seemed to hold some strange evolutionary secret that Sinister had obviously been developing. The man had invented new evolutionary path-ways in micro-cellular form, and it was hard to say what that kind of knowledge would yield. Beast would be scantly seen outside his laboratory for the next few weeks at least, they all knew that. Who knows how long, given what they didn't know about it.

He recorded his thoughts as he began the analysis of the new sample – giving a final personal log, as he had a lot to say about what he thought of these developments.

His final words? "I believe we were given human limitation, so we could decide what capacity we could become. No one being is all things, but we can choose to become something. I think Sinister understood that, but his example was a terrible corruption of that ideal – because he enjoyed the power it gave him, hollow or not. A deception that one life-time, even one as long as his, is not enough to change. It takes more than time, it takes a personal strength, I think."

"I don't know what depraved temptation led him down his path, a mockery of the science it should be, but it's one that all men who seek knowledge should learn to resist."

He tapped a few buttons, and the lights slowly went out in his lab.

(*)

PROFESSOR

(*)

"Sinister did espouse an interesting philosophy, I'll say that much," Xavier mused. "But I think it goes severely wrong on matters of conscience. It is a foolish person who thinks he is wise enough to choose evil, even after a hundred life-times."

"Such things may well be, as Sinister said, the province of God."

"I hadn't expected to hear that kind of sentiment from you, professor."

"I like to think that all things yield to reason, but I also believe that a man should be wise enough to know his limitations," he said with a wry smile. There was something almost self-deprecating about it. Humble, Wolverine supposed, although he couldn't really guess. Animal instinct didn't seem to work on a mind like Xavier's.

It was the one thing that had always baffled him about him.

THE END

I will be taking a short hiatus for some other projects, and then

return to write the final six episodes. Thank you for reading!


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